Mossberg 930 SPX with AFG
I just posted my initial range review of my 930 SPX here and am very impressed with it.
http://mossbergowners.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4491&p=57489#p57489
By my very nature I am a tinkerer and love figuring out how I can modify things. My guns are no exception to this. This SPX serves two roles for me as a 3-gun shotty as well as a HD/SHTF shotty so in order for the gun to better fit my needs some things need to change.
I like Magpul's AFG and have one on just about all my rifles. I looked into getting a railed forearm for the SPX but have not read the best reviews on either the Elite Tactical Bobcat or the Aimpro Tri-Rail.
http://store.magpul.com/product/MAG411/88
http://www.elitetacticaladvantage.com/xcart/product.php?productid=14&cat=1&page=1
http://www.aimprotactical.com/aimpro_tactical_930_tri-rail_forend.htm
So today I decided I would forgo the rail, save the money and weight and start a little DIY project. I had seen that someone else screwed a rail section onto the existing forearm and added an AFG like I wanted so I took their idea and ran with it.
On the way to the range today I stopped by my local gun shop to pick up a Magpul rail for $10. I gathered it and the rest of the tools I would need and got to work.
http://store.magpul.com/product/MAG408/103
Earlier today while re-assembling the gun after cleaning I carefully measured and marked where I could safely but a rail section (between the blue tape). There is just enough room under the forearm where the piston spacer is for this project. I marked and drilled the holes then roughly marked the width of the rail.
The next step was to start sanding the curved area on the forearm flat so that the rail would have more surface area to clamp to. Before I started this however I took the rail section over to the belt sander and took some of the height off it. This will help the AFG to sit lower on the forearm and IMO, look a lot better. I am a bit impatient so I decided to forgo the files for the initial part of the sanding and took the forearm over to the 1" belt sander. I VERY carefully took off a little bit at a time until I has mostly happy with the flatness. Then I used files to smooth things out and get the final profile.
The Magpul rail section comes with flat nuts with a little nipple on them. To get the nut to lay flatter inside the forearm, I drilled out slightly larger holes on the inside of it.
Then I screwed everything together and it turned out 99% perfect. The nuts lay almost perfectly flat and the screws only stick above the nut slightly. From the sides it is almost impossible to tell the rails were not meant to be there.
It works like a champ and looks great to boot!
Additional mods will be coming in the near future.
Thanks!